GK: I don’t view it as a stigma; it could be a cross to bear but not right now. With Apple being so successful these days I highlight that I worked there, but if Apple goes down the toilet I’ll say, I worked for them 25 years ago, what do you want from my life (laughter)? So you see it depends, check back with me in a year.

RH: The "egos" section of Alltop drew much media attention. You listed yourself within this section among personalities such as Fake Steve Jobs, etc. You have always been a self-promoter, but do you consider yourself an egocentric?

GK: Right before releasing Alltop into beta, I was taking a shower and I thought about what would make all these so-called experts go to Alltop at least once? I thought about making a section that gathers all the biggest egos of the Internet, because how could they resist, at least once, seeing the listing. So I added Scoble, Winer, Calacanis, and all the big people, and then I thought if I don’t put myself in there they’re gonna think I am a hypocrite, so I put myself on that. Some people who are on the list reacted very negatively to being on the list. My response to them was: it’s called ego.alltop.com not egomaniac.alltop.com, not egotist.alltop.com, what are you complaining about? Another interesting thing about the egos section is that some people have asked to be placed on the list, and I told them "if you have to ask you don’t belong," and if you ask to be taken off, for sure you belong. So that’s the test for egos.

RH: Do you think it is important to have an oversized ego to go where you need to go in this industry?

G K: As an entrepreneur, like it or not, most of the world is gonna tell you, it can’t be done, it shouldn’t be done, it isn’t necessary, and if TechCrunch happens to cover you, they’ll write that it’s already been done, that it’s not that big of a deal, and that I’m only getting attention because I am who I am. So in order to deal with that, you need to have an ego. Otherwise you would be like the TechCrunch reader as opposed to the TechCrunch subject. You’ll be sitting in a dark little office, angry all the time. So that’s what it takes.

RH: Is it the foremost quality of all successful entrepreneurs?

G.K: Anger? (laughter)

RH: No, ego?

G K: Yes, a healthy ego is necessary to anybody who is successful, be it a minister, a CEO, a teacher, or a reporter. I don’t know any successful people who have zero ego, but there is a difference between having a healthy ego and being an egomaniac.

RH: To continue on the ego note, Alltop links to Fake Steve Jobs’ blog on Alltop. What do you think of his personification, do you recognize the real Jobs in him?

G K: Yes, without question. He takes it just far enough to make it parody, and there is enough truth to make it good parody.

RH: What do you think Steve Jobs thinks of him?

GK: I don’t even know that Steve Jobs knows he exists. You know when you are at the level of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates and Larry Ellison and that kind of people it’s a different operating system. Mere mortals like us cannot understand how these people function. It’s simply a different operating system. We have no idea.

RH: Who are your heroes? Who are you inspired by?

G K: I wish I could tell you, I had all these heroes. Let me put it this way, I admire a class of people. I admire educators because they help children and they help make the word a better place, and they are not paid a lot of money. I think they are the most admirable people in the world. Now second one is mothers. They also educate children, they make the world a better place, and they are also underpaid. So you can imagine if you were a teacher and a mother I would really admire you.